...or are we done with roasting Don Imus?

Enough already!

The Washington Post actually carried three separate stories on Wednesday about America's latest "offensive racial slur". The Pope wouldn't get this much ink if he announced that he planned to marry Madeline Albright.

Imus has been doing offensive humor for his entire radio career. It's the only thing moderately amusing about the show. Listening to Imus and his sidekicks poke fun at Al Sharpton, Rush Limbaugh and Woody Allen (not to mention the current and past New York Archbishops) was blessed relief from the ramblings of Imus' brother Fred and endless, insufferable dissertations on the intelligence of Imus' wife and son.

The level of outrage in the black community is, as it has been before, out of all proportion to the event. Al Sharpton was on the airwaves faster than you can say Tawana Brawley. Jesse Jackson, a little slower than he used to be, was picketing in front of CBS in plenty of time to make the six o'clock news. The coach of the rightfully offended Rutgers Women's Basketball team was actually crying during her televised statement. (There's no crying in basketball!)

This offense just does not rise to the level of Abner Louima or Amadou Diallo. Although I do not have the right to decide what will offend someone else, neither should Jesse and Al decide what offends ten women basketball players from New Jersey.

Now before you all insist that I have my liberal credentials re-validated, hear me out. Intent matters. How you say something, who says it and the circumstance under which you say it matters. If someone yells a racial or ethnic epithet at you in traffic, do you cry? Of course not. You flip them the bird and continue driving. If Chris Rock had said this on the Imus show, there would be no story and no apology.


However when Mel Gibson opines that Jews are the cause of all wars and directs that statement to a Jewish cop, the cop should be offended and by extension, so should the Jewish Community.

Imus thinks that if you are outrageous enough over a long period of time and if you attack all racial and ethnic groups equally no one will take offense. "We kid because we love". I'm guessing that a lot of people sitting in the front row of Don Rickles' concert were plenty offended but, hey, we're only kidding.

Whether Don Imus is a racist is entirely beside the point. Whether I'm an alcoholic or not, if I drink too much and throw up in your car, I can expect consequences. There are lines in comedy and Imus crossed one. He is now paying the price. Let's move on. By the way, can you imagine the size of the bouquet of roses that Albert Gonzales sent to Imus for taking him off the front page for a week?